


Nothing Good Comes for Free

by wistering



Series: one hundred lifetimes [2]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Horror, Character Turned Into a Monster, Dehumanization, Gore, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Moral Dilemmas, Sibling Incest, Size Difference, Size Kink, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 10:56:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16448567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wistering/pseuds/wistering
Summary: They said that Nova Sakaar was a paradise where people could live freely without fear.It turns out there was much to fear, after all.-“You see, Thor,” the Grandmaster said, “you can say you won’t help me, and that’s no skin off my back. But it’s, uh, a lot of skin off Loki’s. Literally."





	Nothing Good Comes for Free

**Author's Note:**

> Please mind the tags. This is an extremely dark horror story with explicit descriptions of torture. The setting is based off of the horror game _Amnesia: The Dark Descent_ , which, if you know about it, should tell you everything about what you should expect.
> 
> This is the 37th entry to my 100 Lifetimes Challenge, which I'm posting separately. All you really have to know is that Thor and Loki reincarnate 100 times, and Loki remembers everything that has happened in past lifetimes while Thor knows nothing. :)

When Thor first heard the rumors of the paradise founded on the Baron Dwi Gast’s lands, he begged Loki for them to go.

“Absolutely not,” Loki said, scowling. “Why in the world would we do that?”

“We can be free there,” Thor said. He grasped his brother’s hands in his own. They sat together, huddled close in the privacy of their cramped house. The windows were tightly closed so that no one might look into their home, where they would see the two brothers as they truly were: lovers. Only a single flickering candle illuminated the room, casting a faint and warm orange glow over Loki’s disgruntled face. “The Baron Dwi Gast invites all sorts of outcasts, pariahs - he does not turn anyone away, no matter their religion, their beliefs, or their - their choice of lover. We could be together there, Loki. We wouldn’t have to hide.”

“We are doing just fine here, Thor. You have your lands and your farm, and I have my vineyard. If you are so dissatisfied with our life, then we can go anywhere else. We could go into a forest. Perhaps you’d like to build us a little cottage by a lake, where we might spend the rest of our days in privacy. Or we could move to another town, where no one knows that we are brothers.”

Thor’s grip on Loki’s hands tightened. “But even then,” Thor said quietly, “we could not get married, there.”

“Is that what this is about?” Loki laughed, sharp. “We do not need a ring or a ceremony for us to belong to each other. I have vowed myself to you, and you to me - what more could you possibly need?”

Loki raised Thor’s hand to kiss it, idly, then went to prepare himself for bed. He did not speak of it again, and seemed unwilling to entertain the idea further.

Yet Thor could not stop imagining the life that could be, in the town of Nova Sakaar; he and Loki could walk arm-in-arm beneath the sunlight, with no one to judge them or look at them askance. He could kiss Loki beneath the stars, and take him dancing in the town square. He and Loki could start a life there where they could be free and happy.

They wouldn’t have to hide their love from the world, pretending to be only brothers and nothing more. They would not have to board up their home and couple furtively in the darkness, voices hushed so as to not reveal the deeds they do to each other in secret. They would not have to keep each other at careful distance in public, and neither would they have to pretend to court the town ladies.

Thor had dreams of their wedding, white flowers climbing over a trellis while Loki stood beneath it, radiant in the sunlight as he and Thor both swore their vows. Thor dreamed of this, and he ached.

It took weeks of begging and needling and, admittedly, morose moping, but Thor eventually wore Loki down. “Perhaps it won’t be so bad, Loki conceded, eyes half-lidded. “But should anything happen, we must leave immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes, alright,” Thor agreed, already thinking of the new life they would lead in paradise.

They boarded up their old home. Thor knocked on the door of his neighbor and gave him the rights to their lands - “We’ll be going away somewhere,” Thor told him. Volstagg looked curious, but no matter how many questions he asked, Thor knew better than to admit that he and Loki were going to the Baron Dwi Gast’s lands; eventually Volstagg sighed, clapped Thor on the shoulder, and wished him well.

“I’ll keep your lands safe in case you ever come back,” he said.

Thor laughed. “And if it turns out we won’t need them, I’ll write to you.”

The journey to the village of Nova Sakaar, which rested a short ways from the towering castle of the Baron Dwi Gast, took over a month to travel. As Thor hoped, when he explained who he and his brother were, they were welcomed with open arms. He and Loki bought a house, a large and spacious one with airy windows and a timber porch with tall, sturdy balustrades. Loki ran a hand over the balustrade and said, “A climbing vine would look lovely here.”

Thor beamed.

They spent their first weeks in complete bliss. Thor found work helping in the village farms, his sturdy body suited for the heavy labor. Loki kept mostly to himself; he was one of the few people who was literate and well-read, so he assisted with drafting letters, documents, and records.

The first day that Thor took Loki’s hand while they walked through the town, his palm was full of sweat. He watched vigilantly for any sign of danger, but it never came. The other villagers smiled or did not even notice.

Their love was allowed here.

Thor had never been happier.

At night, in bed, he made love to Loki and heard for the first time his brother’s wild and unabashed cries. He made Loki scream with pleasure, and he himself could not stop the fervent moans from escaping him when Loki drank down and lapped at his cock. When they were both sated, Thor gathered Loki in his arms, the curtains pulled open to allow the soft cast of moonlight over their bodies, and he whispered to Loki of the dreams he had for their wedding day.

Loki, who had been listening to him quietly, slowly raised a hand and stroked Thor’s jaw. “Perhaps it would be alright,” Loki said, his voice soft and cautious. Hopeful.

Two months later, when Thor and Loki were well-settled in the village, news spread that the Baron would be hosting a festival. The entire town flew into a flurry of preparations, and Thor, caught in the storm, went along with them. Loki, however, stayed back; he refused to participate in setting up the festival, and withdrew into the safety of their home. “I simply would like some peace and quiet,” he said, when Thor confronted him on his hermetic behavior. Thor frowned, but he knew that his brother could be taciturn even at the best of times, so he did not push.

Thor met the Baron Dwi Gast for the first time on the festival night. The crowd roared around a bonfire, pigs roasting over flame and warm mead flowing freely into everyone’s waiting cups. Thor enjoyed the celebrations greatly, but every now and then he felt a keen pang of loss for his brother, who remained sheltered inside. Thor wished he could spend this night with Loki; then it would have been perfect. It was while Thor contemplated this that a man approached him, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

The man was clothed in a gaudy gold-colored coat. “Hey there, fella,” he said, with a strange and disarmingly familiar affectation. “What’s, uh, what’s with the long face? You not enjoying the party?”

The man’s sudden appearance startled Thor, who jostled his mug and spilled some mead over the ground. “Oh, no, it is a fine celebration,” Thor said. He sighed, head swimming lightly from the alcohol, and confided, “I only just wish my brother would join me.”

“Oh? Your brother…?”

“He remains at home. He is not fond of festivals.”

“Hey hey, no need to look so sad. Cheer up, my friend.” The man patted Thor on the shoulder. “Enjoy yourself, let loose. I’m sure you can, uh, have some fun with your brother later tonight.”

“You’re right.” Thor’s mood cheered at the thought. It was true that after the celebration, he would return to Loki’s waiting arms. It was not so bad to spend a single day without him when there were many more days they would spend together in the future.

“So,” the man said, drawing Thor’s attention back to him. The man smiled, cheery. “I haven’t seen you around here before. You, uh, you new?”

“Yes. My brother and I arrived three months ago.”

“Wow! Great! Well, welcome to Nova Sakaar. I’m, uh, the ruler around these parts, nice to meet you.”

Thor stared.Though the man dressed quite strangely, Thor finally noticed that indeed, the man’s clothing was of much higher quality and make than any common villager’s would be. “The Baron Dwi Gast? Forgive me, I--”

The man made a face. “Oh, well, that is what they call me, but I actually prefer to be called the Grandmaster. That’s more me. You get it, right? What’s, uh, what’s your name again?”

“Forgive me. Good to meet you, Grandmaster. My name is Thor.”

The Grandmaster smiled, and Thor smiled back. When the Grandmaster offered a hand to shake, Thor took it, and they shook heartily.

“Oh wow, you’re strong! You’re a strong one, huh? Got a lot of--” The Grandmaster tapped a finger to his own chest. “Heart power. I see. I see. Very nice. Let me ask you a question, Thor. You should work for me.”

That wasn’t a question. “Work? What kind?” Thor asked.

“Oh, just some, you know, small stuff. Moving things around. Carrying things. Using those, hah hah, those big muscles of yours for some good. What do you think? My, uh, my bodyguard says that I pay well. Too well, in fact, but I’m happy to do it, and you would be very, very happy to be paid well, right?”

“Well, yes?” Thor said, thrown by the bluster. The grandmaster smiled. He clapped a hand on Thor’s shoulder.

“Great! Then it’s settled. I’ll have, uh, someone come over to get you started tomorrow. It’s gonna be great.”

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Thor remembered little, and it was only when a messenger came knocking at the door to the house that Thor remembered his encounter with the Grandmaster.

When Loki heard from the messenger that Thor had agreed to work for the Grandmaster, Loki became furious.

“You complete and utter idiot,” Loki seethed. He paced the room, pulling at his hair. He had practically thrown the messenger out, and now he had trapped Thor in the room with him, looking like a caged animal. “Why would you agree to work for him? You should have stayed away from--”

“He’s the master of these lands, Loki,” Thor growled. “He offered me a job. Why should I not take it?”

“You don’t know him, Thor!”

“Neither do you, Loki!”

Their yelling quieted, leaving the room feeling fragile in its silence. Loki stared at Thor, eyes wide with an unnameable emotion, his chest heaving - and then something seemed to flicker through him, and he lowered his eyes. “You’re right. I don’t know him,” Loki said, strange and quiet. Thor could not resist the pull which brought him closer to Loki; he reached for his brother and gently placed a hand at the side of Loki’s neck.

“It will be fine, Loki. Trust me.”

Loki gazed at Thor, searching. He said, still quiet, “Alright. I do. But… if anything happens…”

“We’ll leave. I know. I promise.” Thor leaned closer, resting his forehead against Loki’s. “It will be alright. Nothing will happen.”

“Perhaps,” Loki said.

Thor went to work. As promised, the Grandmaster only gave him menial tasks; Thor worked outside of the castle, carrying cargo and assisting with handiwork. The pay was extravagant for what he did, and with it Thor was able to purchase all sorts of luxuries for Loki. Oils for his hair, flowers, fine but subtle pieces of jewelry to adorn himself with. Loki took them with a smile, but Thor could still sense his brother’s worry.

“How was work?” Loki asked every night. “Did you talk to the Grandmaster?”

“It was well,” Thor always responded. To the second question, he answered, “No,” on most days; “We chatted,” on some others. Loki always pursed his lips when Thor admitted to interacting with the Grandmaster, but said nothing more.

(On one night, Thor wondered why his brother called him ‘the Grandmaster’ when everyone else in the village still referred to the man by the title of Baron Dwi Gast. But the thought faded quickly - Thor figured that Loki must have heard Thor call the man as the Grandmaster, and picked up on the name, as well.)

All was well. Thor had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. Nova Sakaar truly seemed like a paradise, and he and Loki were finally together the way Thor had always dreamed of.

It was on a rainy day, late in the year, that things began to change.

A large carriage had rolled into the town square bearing shipments. The horses trodded forward in the mud, and one of them, spooked by a sudden streak of lightning, reared. The carriage unbalanced, tipping over on its side; Thor watched this in horror, and rushed forward to help stabilize the carriage and prevent the driver from being crushed. Thor’s boots slipped in the mud, and he struggled to support the carriage - but in the end, it fell over, crushing Thor’s chest and body beneath it.

Thor screamed in agony, and everyone in the town flew into a panic.Thor felt searing pain; he could barely breathe. His vision grew spotty, the rain pelting his face. The wood of the carriage creaked as it bore down on him.

“Thor!” Someone must have fetched Loki, for Thor’s brother rushed into the mud beside Thor. Loki knelt, eyes wide with terror and tears. Thor stared up at him, trying to speak Loki’s name, but no sound would come out.

“Shhh, shhh,” Loki soothed. Thor could barely see anything, but he could tell that Loki was desperately trying to hold back tears. “You’ll be alright. I promise. Someone, help! Get this cart off of him!”

Loki shouted to the men around the square. What happened next, Thor could only remember in flashes; the cart was on him, and then it was not. His body was in so much pain that he felt utterly numb. When he looked down, he thought he saw bone sticking out of his leg - but the next he blinked, it was gone.

Loki. Loki’s hands, soothing Thor. Loki had bent over him, his hair a dark curtain, body hunched. There was a green glow on his hands, but Thor might have imagined it.

The next thing Thor knew, he could breathe. He gasped, chest filling with air. His body did not feel quite so pained as before.

“He’s alright,” a woman said in disbelief. “My god, it’s a miracle!”

“Yes,” Loki said, shaky, soothing Thor’s hair with trembling hands. “Thank the gods that you’re alright, Thor.”

A clear clapping sound cut through the murmurs of the crowd. Loki stiffened. He turned, slowly, and over Loki’s shoulder Thor saw the Grandmaster walking toward them.

“Wow, what a show! What an amazing - Thor! Glad you’re alright. Would’ve been terrible to see you mangled up with your bones sticking out. Eugh.” The Grandmaster scrunched his face and made a noise of distaste at the thought. But that thought seemed to pass quickly, for the Grandmaster whirled to Loki, a smile on his face. Loki’s expression went carefully blank. “Thor,” the Grandmaster said, “you never told me you had such a, a talented brother. What’s your name?”

There was a pause. “Loki,” his brother said.

“Loki,” the Grandmaster repeated. “Great. Just wonderful. How do you feel about employment, Loki? I’ve got a, a very important job that needs doing, and I think you're just the right person to help me out. Don’t you think, Topaz?”  The Grandmaster looked behind his shoulder to where his bodyguard stood. “Isn’t he just absolutely perfect for the job?”

“Only a little better than a screaming little baby,” the bodyguard said, in a flat voice that was either an insult or a statement.

The Grandmaster looked offended. “No! No, Topaz. He’s much better than a, a screaming baby. He’s hired. We’re hiring him. Topaz, get the guards to bring him to the castle. We’ll, uh, we’ll put him to work right away. You agree, right?”

“Wait, Grandmaster--” Thor intervened. He tried to sit up, but his head swam from the movement.

“It’s decided!” The Grandmaster said jovially. He clapped a hand to Loki’s shoulder, and then the guards bore Thor’s wide-eyed and tight-lipped brother away. “He’ll be fine,” the Grandmaster said to Thor. “You’ll have him back by nightfall. Promise. Wouldn’t want to, uh, get in the way of the brotherly bliss.” He winked.

Thor spend the rest of the day weakened and panicked. His body was too weary to even stand for too long, so he carried himself to bed and worried himself sick, wondering what had happened to Loki and what job his brother had been tasked with. Thor could not stop thinking of the naked fear on his brother’s face.

It was after the sun had sunk and night came over the land that Thor heard the sounds of Loki’s return. Thor tried to lift himself from bed to rush to him, but Loki arrived at their bedroom first. The shadows of the night kept Thor from seeing Loki’s expression clearly.

“Loki?” Thor asked.

Loki walked over to the bed and pushed Thor down. “You should be resting,” Loki said, voice gentle. Thor could not read anything deeper from his voice.

“Loki, are you alright?”

His brother did not answer. Instead, he shucked off his clothing and climbed atop Thor. Loki’s pale skin glowed in the moonlight, and his clever fingers stroked Thor to hardness. Loki sank down on Thor and rode him to ecstasy, and after the both of them had spent, Loki surged forward and kissed Thor with singleminded passion.

“I’m alright,” Loki said, when their lips parted. “I didn’t expect what he was working on. He just needs me to work on research. That’s all.”

“What kind of research?”

Loki slipped off of Thor, rolling into the space on the bed beside him. He nearly wrapped himself around Thor’s arm as if he couldn’t bear to be apart from him.

Thor thought Loki would not answer. His mind was slipping into slumber, and as his senses dimmed, he registered, only in his last moments of consciousness, Loki’s words: “He’s searching for a way home.”

Thereafter, once every three days, Loki went with Thor to the Grandmaster’s castle. The Grandmaster’s bodyguard whisked Loki away, and Thor was left to perform his duties on the castle grounds. No one would tell Thor where Loki went or what he was doing. Not even Loki himself.

Loki always left the castle at sundown. He looked haunted, his eyes unable to hide the darkness Thor saw in them. But when Thor tried to pry answers from Loki, Loki refused to speak. He snapped that it was nothing for Thor to know, and buried himself in Thor’s arms.

Loki looked worse and worse as time passed, face growing gaunt and the bags beneath his eyes deepening. One day, when Thor reached for him, Loki flinched. And finally, Thor knew that something, something must be wrong. “Is he hurting you?” Thor snarled, anger building up in his veins.

Loki did not answer immediately. When he did speak, he only said, “He isn’t touching me, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m fine.” He then slid closer to Thor, wrapped his arms around Thor’s neck, and made Thor fuck him twice into the bed.

But still, Thor could not let this go. He couldn’t pretend Loki wasn’t suffering, doing whatever it was that the Grandmaster had asked of him. “We can leave,” Thor whispered, after a particularly bad night. Loki clinged to him like he was terrified of letting go, and all Thor could do was hold him closely. “We’ll go somewhere else. We’ll find a place. Or we can return home.”

Loki just let out a wet laugh.

“It’s too late for that,” he said. And for the rest of the night, he spoke no more.

Thor had to find out what was happening. He had to know. The village was no longer the same as it was, to him. Nova Sakaar was not the paradise he thought it was, not if Loki was suffering.

And so, Thor formulated a plan to sneak his way into the castle. He had to find out just what was happening to Loki.

No one was ever allowed inside of the castle. Thor, who had worked there for half a year, had never once stepped foot inside. Even Hilde, who had been at Nova Sakaar for six years, had not.

But Thor had to do it. He snuck inside through the cellar door, which was used to carry in wine shipments, and hurried through the castle, searching for wherever Loki might be. He found empty kitchens, empty guest rooms, empty parlors. The library was dark and musty, full of cobwebs. Even the bedrooms upstairs were empty.

If Loki were not here, then he must be somewhere below. The dungeons, said a creeping feeling in Thor’s gut.

Downstairs, Thor looked around at the various rooms which led deeper into the castle. There was one particular door which caught his eye. It looked battered, like it had been thrown open many times. There were gouges clawed into the surface.

Thor approached the door. For some reason, the closer he came, the more unsettled he felt. The hairs on his body stood on end as if warning him: do not go in there.

But Thor had to.

Loki was in there.

Thor pushed open the door. It was dark, darkness all around. He hesitantly stepped forward past the door, letting it shut behind him. His eyes adjusted slowly, but still it was too dark to see.

Thor cautiously made his way forward, and after a few steps, nearly plummeted. His hand shot out to the side, gripping the rough stone walls just as his foot made contact with another surface.

They were steps. He was in a stairwell. Heart pounding, Thor made his way down the uneven stone stairs, taking care to not fall. They seemed to go on forever. It almost felt like he was descending into another world, one of darkness and shadow. After several minutes, he finally saw a dim light - an oil lantern hanging at the bottom of the stairwell, illuminating the entrance to another doorway.

The door here was heavy, but when Thor pushed it open, he found himself in a round room. There was a fountain at the center, bubbling with a strange, glowing liquid. Rivers of the liquid ran toward the fountain from lines which stretched from around the room, leading out to several doorways. It looked like the center of a tree with its roots extending out. It was an entrancing sight; the glow of the liquid was otherworldly, and the way it moved was mesmerizing. It did not look like any material commonly known to man.

But then Thor heard Loki’s scream.

A rush of the strange substance surged from beneath one of the doorways, running into the basin around the fountain. The longer Loki screamed, the more flowed from the doorway.

Enraged, Thor ran toward that door. He threw it open, uncaring of the consequences - Loki was being hurt, and Thor had to stop it. He ran through several rooms and hallways, his tunnel vision blinding him to anything but the path forward until, finally, finally, he came to the source of Loki’s screaming.

And what he saw was -

“Loki.” The name left Thor’s lips, broken.

This was pure torture, inhumane and abhorrent. How could this be happening? Thor couldn’t even believe the sight before him. It was too brutal, nothing he could have ever imagined; he nearly fainted, but he stayed upright only because Loki sobbed, sobbed from the brutal pain wracking his entire body.

He had been placed in a chair - though a chair was a mundane way of describing it. It was a device of utter cruelty and torture. Long needles, as long as a man’s forearm, stuck out from every surface of the chair: wherever one’s body might make contact with the chair was lined with these long needles, making it clear that no one should ever touch it. And yet Loki was sitting on that chair, or rather, he had been arranged upon it as if skewered and molded into a sitting position. The needles pierced through his body, grotesquely puncturing every inch of him. The chair needles exited out through Loki’s arms, his hands, his fingertips, breaking through the nails; the gleaming and bloody metal poked out from between each of Loki’s ribs in his chest. His stomach, his pelvis, his legs - even his neck had needles sticking through it. The only place that had not been pierced through was his head. And even that was not safe, for attached to the back of the chair was a cap lined with metal spikes - it was meant to be flipped onto the head of the person in the chair, and would pierce their scalp, their face, their mouth. It had not been placed on Loki.

Not yet.

“Oh, Thor,” the Grandmaster said, from where he sat at the other end of the room. He lounged on a comfortable padded throne, cushions scattered around him. There was an end table with wine and a platter of finger foods next to him. “What a surprise. He, uh, he wasn’t invited, was he?”

“No, he wasn’t,” said the Grandmaster’s bodyguard, who held a hand to the needle cap on the torture device.

“Let him go,” Thor growled, raging forward; he was going to get Loki out of this chair, and he was going to kill them - he was going to slaughter them for hurting his brother--

But Loki was shaking his head, eyes wide, mouthing ‘No’, even though the movement tore open his neck, rivulets of blood dripping down his pale skin - and Thor didn’t see it, but the Grandmaster smiled.

Thor felt a stinging on his neck. A shock like lightning coursed through him - and he knew no more.

-

“Thor, my friend, you really, hah, you really messed things up for yourself,” was what Thor heard when he awoke.

His eyes opened groggily. He found himself chained to the ground, though he felt so weak that he could barely move, anyway. Still, he gathered up the energy to growl at the Grandmaster, who stood before him. The Grandmaster looked the same as ever: a warm smile, a friendly tone of voice. But Thor knew now that he was evil. A pure evil who had been torturing Loki for months.

The Grandmaster didn’t care that Thor glared and snarled at him. He just said, in that playful tone of his, “Ooooh, you’re, uh, you’re looking real mad there. I get it. I really do. You’re probably wondering, well, why is your brother strapped up in a, a torture device? And that’s a good question. I don’t actually like talking about it, but, uh, I’ve had my eye on you for a while. I think you could help me out. A lot! So uh, that’s why I’m going to take the time here to answer your questions and maybe get you to agree to help me out.”

“I will never help you, you monster,” Thor growled.

The Grandmaster laughed.

He snapped his fingers, and then, echoing through the room, so loud that it nearly shook the stones from the walls, was Loki’s scream.

“Stop! Stop--” The Grandmaster snapped his fingers again. The sound ceased, leaving a wake of silence in its place.

“You see, Thor,” the Grandmaster said, “you can say you won’t help me, and that’s no skin off my back. But it’s, uh, a lot of skin off Loki’s. Literally. The more you help me, the less I’ll need your precious lover-brother to go through all of that nasty torture. Got it?”

Thor heaved, feeling sick. The sound of Loki’s scream still rattled through his bones. “I understand.”

“Good! Great. Glad you’re finally getting the memo.” The Grandmaster rubbed his hands together. “So, let’s start. Have any questions?”

Thor felt sick. He couldn’t believe how flippantly the man treated this, as if everything he had done was nothing more than a game. He was a madman, but no matter what, Thor had to play along - at least until he could free his brother. “What are you doing to Loki? Why are you doing this to him?”

“Ah, excellent question! But in order to explain that, I’ve gotta--” The Grandmaster snapped his fingers again. Loki’s wail shook the castle, and Thor shouted, pleading for it to stop - and just a moment later, the Grandmaster snapped his fingers and ended it. “It’s really gushing out here. Take a look-see, here, you see this?” The Grandmaster did a little hop on the ground, moving out of the way. Beneath his feet was a groove carved in the ground, and a stream of glowing liquid flowed through it. The Grandmaster bent down and scooped up some of the liquid - and in his hands, it flowed like smoke, wispy and undefinable. “You see this? This, uh, this little thing here is a type of energy. Vitae, is how you, uh, Earthians call it. Life essence. Very, very powerful stuff. But it can only be produced by people who‘re going through some nasty, horrible stress. It’s not easy to farm, I’ll tell you that. The best way to get it is through, uh, torture. Extensive, painful torture, as drawn-out as possible so that you can get as much of this stuff outta them before they, well, hah hah.

“Anyway,” the Grandmaster continued, letting the glowing light - the vitae - trickle back down to the ground. “Your brother, he’s a real marvel. He’s, uh, he’s very easily hurt. Takes the pain like a champ. Generates a lot of vitae. It’s incredible, it really is. He’s a favorite of mine.”

“Please,” Thor begged, “if you need someone to torture, you can use me instead. I can, I can generate this vitae for you. Just let Loki go, and--” but the Grandmaster was already shaking his head. Thor’s stomach dropped.

“Oooh, no, no, that would not work out even half as well. Believe me, I can tell. You, you’re so… stoic. Real gruff, hearty guy. You don’t break easy. You’re all… stubborn. Optimistic. It would take too much effort to get even a single drop of vitae out of you. And besides, there’s another reason why your brother is better than anyone else out there.”

“And what is that?”

The Grandmaster looked at Thor and smiled. He raised his hands, and wiggled his fingers. Thor stared, uncomprehending. The Grandmaster's smile dropped. “You don’t get it? That’s universal sign language. What do they even teach you Earthians?” The Grandmaster huffed. “He’s, you know.” He wiggled his fingers again, eyebrows raised. “Got powers.”

Thor squinted, believing he might understand. “My brother is not a witch.”

“No, he’s not.” The Grandmaster smiled again. “He’s something better.”

The Grandmaster then turned away. He walked off to the side of the room. Thor had now recovered the wits to take in the area around him; it looked like some sort of laboratory for experimentation. There were two long tables to the right with shackles and tools on them, and to the left were cabinets and shelves of unknown contents.

The Grandmaster returned, strangely enough, with a bottle of wine.

“Then what would you have me do?” Thor asked, as the Grandmaster poured the wine into a mug. The wine smelled sweet - so sweet it was nearly rotting. “To ease Loki’s suffering. How could I possibly help you?”

“Well, uh. You can get people for me.”

“People?” Thor didn't understand. Not at first. But then the Grandmaster smiled and pointed toward the channel for the vitae.

Thor’s stomach dropped. He wanted to vomit.

“You want me to find victims for you.”

“Victims? That’s such a, a harsh word. I don’t like that word. Let’s call them, uh, unwilling participants. You need to find me some unwilling participants for my torture chambers so we can, well, fill up the fuel tank with vitae. The more you get, the less has to come out of your brother dear. You can understand that, right?”

“Yes,” Thor said, though he wished he didn’t have to.

“Great. Then, cheers!” The Grandmaster pushed the mug of wine to Thor’s lips. “Bottom’s up.” Before Thor could ask what it was, the Grandmaster poured it down Thor’s throat. Thor nearly gagged. It was so sweet, but there was something off about it, bitter and disgusting.

When the cup had drained, the Grandmaster took a step back, an anticipatory expression on his face.

“What did you make me drink,” Thor asked.

But just as he finished speaking, he vomited.

Blood, dark and putrid, dripped from his mouth. Thor felt something burning inside him; it was like fire, a poison clawing through his body. He felt like knives were tearing through his stomach; he tried to grit his teeth, but he couldn’t help the shout tearing through his throat.

“You see,” the Grandmaster said, as Thor writhed on the ground like a worm, his skin tearing itself apart, limbs growing bulbous as his entire body morphed, inhuman, grotesque. His entire body was bleeding as his skin cracked open to make room for the swelling mass beneath it. “Told you you wouldn’t be a good, uh, unwilling participant for the vitae extraction process. Everyone else I’ve tried this with screamed so hard their, uh, lungs popped right out of their bodies. And died.”

“Curse you,” Thor snarled. “Curse you to fiery pits of hell, you monster, son of a whore---”

“Ooh, that mouth on you.” The Grandmaster made a face of distaste and looked around the room. His eyes lit up, and he walked off. Thor choked on the ground, body continuing to swell, distort, break apart.

The Grandmaster returned, and in his hands was a piece of metal. “Now let’s take care of that,” he said, and pushed the metal over Thor’s mouth. Thor screamed as the metal welded itself to his skin, fusing with his jaw, his lips, teeth - and then he could scream no more.

-

When it was over, the Grandmaster waited for him in the circular room.

The fountain of vitae, now that Thor looked closely, was about one-third full. It required much more to be filled. Thor did not know how much had been in the fountain before Loki arrived, but he knew that Loki would break before he could fill the entire fountain up.

“Wow, uh, look at you! You look brand new,” the Grandmaster said. He beamed up at Thor, who towered over him. “Completely unrecognizable. Wow. What do you think your brother would say, if he saw you like this?”

Thor remained silent.

“Ah, right. Forgot about that. You can't speak anymore. But that’s okay! You don’t need to. Now, check this out. I’ve got all sorts of neat little things for you. Like this sack, for you to hold the unwilling participants in. A rope, to tie up the sack. Uh, I’ve got a lantern, but you don’t need that, do you? Now that you can see in the dark and everything. Oh, and.” he finished, “there’s this neat hammer. It’s huge. You can use it to, uh, really hammer in anyone who tries to get in the way.”

Thor picked up the hammer, the sack, and the rope. The head of the hammer was as large as a man’s torso, but Thor lifted it like it was nothing.

The Grandmaster clapped his hands. “Wonderful. Truly stupendous! So, uh.”

Loki’s screams rang through the room. A river of vitae trickled down the channel.

“You’d better get going, champ. Wouldn’t, well, wouldn’t want your brother to be hurt too badly.”

-

Thor starts with criminals.

He brings them back to the torture chambers. He shows his quarry to Topaz, who looks at him with disinterest.

“I’m not touching them,” she says.

There is a wheel behind her. She is preparing ropes. She intends to tie Loki’s limbs to the wheel and spin it, slowly, so that the ropes stretch taut and break Loki’s bones the further she spins.

Thor hauls the criminal onto the wheel and takes the ropes from Topaz’s hands.

-

“Please, please don’t do this, please, please--”

Thor ignores it.

-

“You’re not bringing in as many people as you used to,” the Grandmaster comments idly. He runs a finger through the vitae fountain, now half-full. “You, uh, you were trying to get criminals, right? People who deserved it?”

The Grandmaster looks up at Thor, smiling. He rubs his fingers, letting the wisps of vitae fall back into the fountain. “You see, the thing is… there aren’t enough criminals in the world to fill this up.”

Loki is screaming.

The level of vitae in the fountain rises each time he pleads Thor’s name, begging to be saved.

-

“Please don’t, please - no - it hurts it hurts it hurts--”

Thor feels himself cracking inside.

-

“Who was that?” the Grandmaster asks, as Thor hauls the latest broken body to be buried.

“Random guy off the street,” Topaz says.

-

The woman is staring at him with empty eyes.

Thor unties her. The unwilling participants are useless unless they’re screaming.

When Thor frees the last of her limbs, the woman stirs.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispers. “What did I do? Why did I deserve this? I didn’t - I didn’t do anything wrong--”

A trickle of vitae flows down through the channel.

“Please let me go,” she sobs. “Please, please--”

Thor reties the ropes. The woman screams.

-

They do not stop using Loki. No matter how much vitae Thor brings in, it’s never as much as what they can get from Loki.

At night, they let Loki rest. They need his body to heal so that the next day he may be used again. They give him his own cell in the dungeons, with a bed - it is surprisingly soft and sumptuous. There is no point in causing Loki discomfort when they are not extracting vitae from him.

Thor has not approached Loki at all. Loki does not know what has been done to Thor, or what Thor has been doing. Thor has only seen Loki from the shadows, standing in the dim corners while Topaz breaks him, and keeping watch over Loki while he sleeps, sobbing into his bed.

Tonight, Topaz had dripped wax into Loki’s eyes. Loki’s eyes will slowly heal overnight, but for now, he cannot see anything.

Thor approaches Loki quietly. His brother lays on his side, the quilt kicked down around his feet. His brother has always been a surprisingly messy sleeper - he always slept little enough, and when he finally did sleep, it was as if he would rather do anything but. Thor reaches down and grasps the quilt between two of his inhumanly large fingers, and drags it over his brother, tucking him in with a strange tenderness this body has never shown to anyone before.

“Thor?”

Loki had awoken at some point, or perhaps he hadn’t been asleep. Thor freezes; Loki stirs, as if to turn around, so Thor hastily grips Loki’s shoulder with half of his hand to keep Loki from moving.

This time it is Loki who freezes.

“Thor?”

Thor cannot answer. But he doesn’t want Loki to be afraid. He reaches his other hand toward Loki’s head - Loki is so small, now, so small compared to the beast Thor has become. He runs a finger gently down Loki’s head, the way he would pat Loki to comfort him when they were children.

Loki is silent.

He lifts a hand to his shoulder and covers Thor’s fingers with his own.

“Stay with me until the sun rises,” he asks.

-

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the Grandmaster says.

Thor is kneeling on the ground. There is a bug on his neck, some sort of thing that pulses electricity whenever he tries to move. This is what the Grandmaster used to subdue Thor when he was a human, and it still works even when he is something worse.

The Grandmaster is angry. He paces back and forth. He sighs.

“I really - I was really starting to trust you, Thor. You were doing so well. You brought in so many people, gave me all of this - all of this magnificent vitae. And then, the second Topaz and I leave, what do you do? What did he do, Topaz. Tell us. What did he do?”

“Tried to free the torture victim from the chamber.”

“No, Topaz! Not a - I told you I don’t like that word.” The Grandmaster spins on Thor, and points at him. “He tried to make away with my favorite unwilling participant. And that is just not acceptable. Really not acceptable. I don’t like that attitude, not one bit. You know what I think, Topaz?” The Grandmaster taps a finger to his chin.

“We should execute him,” Topaz says.

“That is an option. But I was thinking more that we should, well, teach him a lesson. Bring Loki to that, uh, that bull. You know the one.”

“The brazen bull?”

The Grandmaster snaps his fingers. “That’s the one.”

They make Thor kneel in the torture room. Topaz drags Loki inside, hauling him toward a hollow metal bull made entirely of bronze.

Loki fights, but as always, he does not win. Thor can only watch as Topaz shoves Loki inside of the hollow bronze bull, his thin body bending and curling up on itself to fit.

Topaz closes up the bull.

Then she lights up the fire beneath it, and Thor stares, his eyes wet and dripping tears, as the metal bull heats with Loki trapped inside of it.

-

Thor uses the worst and most inhumane of the torture devices. That way, Topaz will not be able to use them on Loki.

-

“Just a little more,” Loki tells him, stroking Thor’s hair. Thor is kneeling by Loki’s bed, his head wrapped in his brother’s arms. “It’s almost done. Just a little more.”

-

When the fountain is finally full, Thor almost cannot believe it.

“Incredible!” The Grandmaster practically skips around the fountain. “Look at this, it’s really - it’s really all filled up. What a sight. I didn’t think it would be possible in such a, a comparatively short amount of time. You two have truly outdone yourselves.”

Thor watches, numb and overwhelmed, as the Grandmaster performs some sort of - spell, or ritual, or whatever abnormal action it is that causes the vitae to lift from the air and form a portal in front of him. The portal leads - Thor can see where it leads, but at the same time, it is so strange that his mind can barely make sense of it. It is a starkly bright land with enormous mountains made of - colorful metal, and strange, unnatural creations. In the distance are magnificent otherworldly towers. There seem to be birds flying in the air, but they are made of metal and shaped in circles and boxes.

“Well, time to go home,” the Grandmaster says. “Say goodbye to Nova Sakaar, Topaz, and let’s head on back to our good ol’ Original Sakaar!”

He disappears into the portal, Topaz following him. The portal shuts like a stitch slowly pulling closed, and then it is gone.

The vitae, the Grandmaster, Topaz. They are all gone.

It is done.

-

When Thor carried Loki out of the castle, Loki cried. Loki was so small in Thor’s grasp, cradled in Thor’s arms like a child. His limbs were thin, his skin sallow and translucent. He almost looked like he would burn in the sunlight.

Thor brought him back to Nova Sakaar. The town was empty. Its residents were all either buried in the castle grounds, or had fled when they saw the monster coming for them in the night.

Thor and Loki were all that remained.

Their house in Nova Sakaar looked much the same as it always had. It was beautiful and spacious. The climbing vines Loki had planted around the balustrades had crept up the pillars, the leaves hanging lushly off the wood. Thor was nearly too large to fit onto the porch. He painstakingly forced the front door open and set Loki down on the ground inside. Thor had to turn and angle his body to make it through the doorway, but he was eventually successful. He shut the door, picked Loki back up, and carried his brother to their bedroom.

It had been a year since the last time they slept together here. Thor aired the sheets, then carefully set Loki down on the bed.

“Such a gentle brute,” Loki whispered. “Come here.”

Loki raised his hands. Thor lowered his head, and Loki cupped his cheeks, half of his hand covering skin and half covering metal. Loki dragged Thor’s head down, and pressed a kiss to Thor’s forehead.

“My love,” Loki said, lips brushing against Thor’s forehead. “My brother. Thor. It’s over. We survived. We won.”

Thor rested his head on Loki’s chest. He was not sure if that was true.

Loki pulled at Thor’s hair. “Get up here,” he commanded, and Thor was used to obeying.

The bed creaked worryingly beneath Thor’s mass, but he climbed beside Loki. His brother seemed pleased by this; a trace of tension left his shoulders. Loki rolled over and pressed his body close to Thor’s; Loki fit perfectly between his arms. Thor held him, and Loki sighed in contentment.

They stayed there, wrapped up in each other for some time. The sun was bright outside, and filtered into the bedroom through the leaves of the vines which crept around the edges of the window.

Thor trailed a hand down Loki’s back, calming, and it made Loki hitch his breath.

“Thor,” he said, as if realizing something. Thor looked down, curious, just as Loki fit himself closer to Thor’s body.

Thor froze.

“It’s been so long since we’ve… I need you, Thor.” Loki’s eyes held tears. He was trembling. For an entire year, he’d been hurt, maimed, broken beyond the limits any person should have been able to bear - and now he was begging for the touch of a monster, a murderer. Thor would break Loki if he touched him. Thor’s body was unrecognizable as human; he had seen himself in the reflections of ponds, in the running waters of rivers. He had once been beautiful, but now he was a grotesque and inhuman creature, a lumbering nightmare.

Loki could not love him like this.

But Loki was crying against Thor’s chest, pleading for Thor’s touch, and Thor was weak. He would do anything to soothe Loki, so he stroked his monstrously large hand down Loki’s back to comfort him, and used the other to rub between Loki’s legs.

“Not there,” Loki protested, when Thor tried to simply give friction to Loki’s cock. “I want you inside me.”

Thor froze again. He could not… he still had his cock. But it would break Loki. His fingers, though - one was already the size of an average man’s cock, and two should be enough to satisfy Loki.

There was oil in the drawer beside the bed. Thor drizzled some on his fingers and reached down, pulling Loki’s trousers to make room for Thor’s hand. Loki whined when he felt the pressure of the fingers behind him. He opened up sweetly for Thor’s fingers, panting around the first and moaning when the second joined it. Loki rocked back on Thor’s monstrous fingers, his hard cock grinding against Thor’s stomach.

Despite himself, Thor felt his own start to fill up. He could not help it. Even now, Loki was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Thor thrust his fingers back and forth, curling inside Loki to stroke at the part which made Loki cry out, helpless against the pleasure.

Then Loki brought his hands to the front of Thor’s trousers, pressing them against the head of Thor’s hardened cock. “Please,” Loki begged. “Your cock. I want it--”

Loki cried out when Thor grasped his wrists and pulled them away. Panicked, Thor hastened the speed of his fingers’ thrusts; the sooner he brought Loki to completion, the sooner Loki would forget about this lust.

Loki soon came, spilling between them, his hole clenching tightly around Thor’s fingers. He panted, dazed on the bed, and Thor leaped to clean him up and tuck him in blankets. Loki soon fell asleep, too spent and exhausted to fight against the comfort.

While Loki rested, Thor went to another room and curled up on himself. He ignored his monstrous cock, filthy thing that it was, and rested his head in his arms. He was disgusting. He was horrifying. His hands were bloody, despicable things that had tortured and maimed and killed innocent people. He had touched his own brother with these hands, his brother who had suffered so greatly by the very same tortures Thor had committed.

Thor was the most disgusting creature ever alive. He didn’t deserve to touch Loki, didn’t even deserve to look at him. But there was no one else who could care for Loki, so Thor would stay by Loki’s side until Loki had healed.

Then Thor could leave. He would go deep into a forest somewhere, and find a good place to exile himself. Somewhere he would never be able to hurt another human being, somewhere Loki would never find him. Loki deserved a better life with a good man, not someone who was a monster both inside and out, like Thor.

When Thor had resolved himself, his body calmed and the fire doused, he returned to the bed. He climbed up carefully and lay there beside Loki, wrapping himself around his slumbering brother so that if anything tried to harm him, it would have to go through Thor, first.

-

Thor did not know when he had fallen asleep, but when he awoke, he was flat on his back.

Loki was sitting above him.

Moonlight drifted in from the window, making Loki’s skin glow as if it were made of vitae. Loki’s knees dug in at either side of Thor’s hips, one of his hands splayed on Thor’s stomach, and the other…

Thor’s chest heaved, entire body trembling. He felt clever fingers running up and down his cock, and his eyes squeezed shut. It was too much, too--

Thor tried to reach for Loki, to move his brother off of him before it was too late - but Loki swiftly rose up, moved back, and sank down on Thor’s cock.

Thor bellowed, wordless, his head tossed back onto a pillow. Loki - Loki had--

Loki was taking his cock, Thor’s monstrous prick sliding inside of him. Loki’s legs quaked from the strain, his mouth pulled tight in a scowl, but his eyes were fierce as they gazed at Thor’s.

“You’re mine,” Loki snapped. “My brother, my lover, my husband.” He punctuated this with a roll of his hips, sinking further down Thor’s cock. He was so tight, his hole stretched so far around the enormous girth that it was a wonder Loki hadn’t split in two. It should have been painful, should have been a torture on its own right - but Loki was panting, his own hard cock bobbing and weeping in front of him. “You’re mine,” Loki said again, “and if I want your cock, then you’re going to give it to me.”

Thor nearly shot inside of Loki at those words. His throat hitched around a soundless whine, his hands scrabbling at the bedsheets. Loki kept sliding down, taking more and more inside of him; it should have been impossible.

“Oh,” Loki breathed, in wonder; he set a hand to his own stomach, and moved his hips. “I can feel you inside me.” He pressed his hand down on his stomach, and Thor saw stars; he could feel the pressure on his cock, and he sobbed.

Loki began hitching his hips up and down, building momentum; he was fucking himself gently on Thor’s cock, feeling Thor moving inside him with a hand on his stomach. He had begun making little punched-out noises, soft and wondrous ah, ah, ahs with each slide down the cock between his thighs. Thor had never heard Loki make such sounds before, and it drove him wild; he shook from the strain of keeping himself from moving, from fucking up into Loki and breaking him. His fists were so tightly-curled around the bedsheets that he thought he might rip them apart.

“Put your hands on my hips,” Loki breathed, and Thor, unable to disobey when his brother spoke like that, did as he asked. Thor’s hands easily covered Loki’s hips, wrapping around them with his fingers meeting. “Oh, fuck,” Loki said when he saw that. “Norns, that’s--” Loki gave a vicious twist of his hips and began bouncing up and down on Thor’s cock, staring at the way Thor’s hands circled him entirely. Loki’s tight hole swallowed Thor up again and again, and Thor could feel the way Loki was so tiny and delicate in his hands, yet Loki was fearless, thriving, taking his pleasure on Thor. Loki tossed his head back on a breathless moan, revealing the long line of his pale neck; he kept one hand on his stomach to feel the way Thor’s cock bulged inside him, and raised the other to roll a dusky nipple between his fingers.

Thor’s chest heaved; how he would love to sink his teeth into Loki’s neck and mark him up with kisses and bites; how he wanted to hold Loki’s chest in his hands and pluck and suck at his nipples until Loki cried; he wanted to lick down the line of Loki’s stomach and lap at Loki’s beautiful bobbing cock. He couldn’t; he couldn’t, not anymore. But Loki kept moaning Thor’s name, moaning and sobbing for his brother’s cock, and Loki was so pitiful - he was desperately chasing pleasure, his ass full of cock and both of his hands occupied, and in the process he had left his own cock neglected. It was weepy and unspent, flushed so red and ready to burst if only it had some pressure against it.

And Thor was so weak to Loki’s desires; when Loki sobbed, “Touch me, brother, please,” Thor could do nothing else but slide Loki’s cock between his thumbs and roll it between his fingers. Loki shuddered, tears leaking down his cheeks, and Thor froze in fear that he had disgusted Loki, violated him - but then Loki hitched another sob and came all over Thor’s stomach, his spend shooting out harder than Thor had ever seen it go in his life.

“Thor, Thor, in me, in me, please,” Loki begged, eyes shining so sweetly as he kept rolling his hips, and Thor was helpless but to obey.

-

In the morning, Loki was laid out on a divan Thor had pilfered from another of the houses. The bedsheets hung from the washline, billowing gently in the breeze.

“Not sure they’ll ever really be clean, really,” Loki said around a yawn. Thor blushed red in shame and continued scrubbing at the quilts, trying to wash out the spend that had soaked into them.

Loki chuckled, warm. He watched Thor struggle, making no move to help; it wasn’t as if he could move, anyway.

The trees rustled in the breeze; the clouds passed lazily over the bright sun. The only sounds in the area were those of Thor, enormous and monstrous, scrubbing the quilts on a comically small washboard, and of Loki giggling, happy.


End file.
